Students, faculty and staff filled a classroom in the Psychology building yesterday to hear Arizona State University professor Michael Foster Olive present his research on the dangers of designer drugs such as bath salts.
Olive, who spoke about the effects of synthetic canthinones, a group of highly addictive and dangerous drugs, also discussed in detail a study that he worked on with several ASU colleagues.
Olive said that the effect of these drugs causes a person to lash out and act in an odd and uncontrollable manner.
“You get extreme agitation, hallucinations, and delusions and there are a number of physiological effects,” he said. “It causes heart attacks, deliria, violent behavior [and] foaming at the mouth.”
For the study, Olive and his colleagues tested two different types of bath salts that they purchased online for less than $100.
In the study, lab rats were able to press a lever in order to receive a dosage of methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) or serotonin transporter, two types of designer drugs, according to Olive.
Before the rats could receive drug dosages, however, they had to press the lever a certain amount of times, he said. The research found that the rats would not press the lever more than 60 times.
Once the rats had been exposed to the designer drugs, they were more likely to choose the drugs over food and potential mates, he said.
The research ultimately found that drugs that stimulated effects comparable to 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), or ecstasy, were less preferred than bathsalts. Other forms like MDPV were more addicting than methamphetamines, Olive said.
Junior psychology major Santi Decunto said he fells that it is important that people are educated about the effects of designer drugs.
“We are talking about something more potent than cocaine and methamphetamine two of the more dangerous drugs,” he said. “I think it’s scary to know these things exist and to know people are abusing these things.”
Olive also explained the effects that designer drugs cause, such as hallucinations psychotic episodes that have resulted in death and murder, Olive said.
According to Olive’s research, the effects of bath salts can be long lasting.
“Sometimes these psychotic behaviors last for not just a couple of hours but for days or weeks,” he said.
As of 2010, the use of this drug has increased throughout the U.S. In 2011, there were about 20,000 bath salt related emergencies reported, Olive said.
Following recent media attention, bath salts now go by many different names, such as iPod cleaner, plant food, glass cleaner, legal cocaine or legal ecstasy, and come in a white powder form that is injected, snorted or smoked. These drugs can easily be purchased online despite the Drug Enforcement Administration’s constant effort to shut these websites down.
“These things are not good,” Olive said. “They come in a white power and you have no idea what’s in it, what concentration, [and] what other things are in it.”